The shattered heart

Coffee shop interior.A restless man sits in a corner smoking. A gorgeous woman enters the coffee and approaches the man. She sits opposite him and introduces herself as a neighbour.Outside the window, a man wearing spectacles and holding a cigarette watches them.“So what?” he asks looking quite disinterested. She stutters and he begins to walk off. She runs behind him, placates him and they both return to the table. She makes a botched upproposal and he laughs. He says that she can share his bed for a night. She feels quite angry and humiliated and she leaves the place crying.

Madhu enters her home and sees her husband sitting on the couch and watching the History channel. She moves towards the kitchen, he stares at her. As she makes tea, he asks her where she’s been. She says that she went for a friend’s birthday party. “So, the party was at (…) Coffee Shop, right?” he asks.Madhu pours some tea into a cup wondering how to react. Her husbandenters the kitchen when suddenly, her phone rings. Hepicks it up and hears her friend asking whether she proposed Raghav.He throws her phone in rageand shoves her. She hits the counter and falls to the floor with a gash on her forehead.Shaking with fury, he turns around and leaves. She sits up, leaning against the counter and cries.

The next day, Raghav locks his door and walks towards the bus stop. He boards the bus and the bus starts. He sees Madhu rushing towards the bus but acts indifferent. The bus conductor sees her and uses his whistle, signalling the bus driver to stop. She gets in using the other entry point. As the bus is crowded, there aren’t any free seats and so she stands. When she turns to buy a ticket, she sees Raghav looking at her as if she were a stranger. Furious, she turns her face.

That evening, Raghav returns from work and smokes at a nearby tea stall. Meanwhile, an inspector looking at a photograph of Raghav was passing by in his car. He looks up and sees Raghav at the tea stall. Recognizing him, he asks the driver to stop,yells “Come here” and beckons him. Raghav continues to smoke as if nothing happened. The inspector gets out and asks him to enter the car. Raghavasks “Why?” in a superior tone and the inspector says that it is a public place and he isn’t allowed to smoke there. He asks him, “Can you come and sit in the car, Sir?”. Raghav enters the car.

In the station,the inspectors asks the constable to file an FIR on Raghav for the harassment of Madhu as per her husband’s complaint. On hearing this, Raghav gets furious and catches him by his collar and asks him what his wife’s name was. The inspector asks “Why should I tell you?” and he replies “Because I want it in the FIR instead of Madhu”. The inspector requests him to take his hands off of him and asks the constable to lock him up in the cell. He proceeds to beat him brutally. Later, Raghav just sits there in his cell awaiting his destiny.

The next morning, Madhu enters the station with an advocate and Raghav sees her from his cell. She explains to the inspector that there was no relation between Raghav and herself. She had already applied for a divorce from Hari and it was Hari who was harassing her. On hearing

Written by Akash Ramanathan

this, the inspector says that the FIR has already been filed and he can only be taken out on bail. Madhu’s advocate was preparedfor this event and goes ahead with the required procedures. The inspector asks them to wait outside for a while and asks the constable tothrow the dog out of the cell. Madhu waits outside expectantly but when Raghav comes out, he walks off as if she weren’t there.

Two years later

Raghav is now employed in an esteemed IT company in Mumbai. In his workspace, his colleague Divya passes him a file and asks him whether he was free that Friday as she wanted him to take her out for a movie. Raghav gently brushes off her advance. During the break, Raghav and his friend, Ishanth go to the coffee machine. Both of them get their coffees and as they walk back to their workspace, Ishanth says that Divya is a good girl andthatRaghavshould get settled down eventually as he is turning 30. Raghav replies with a chuckle “I’m a bit tired of girls. Why don’t you make a move on her?”.

After the day is over, Ishanth and Raghav are on the way back to their roomwhen they see the famous (…)Chaat Shop. Raghav asks Ishanth to buy them something to eat. As Ishanth leaves the car and walks towards the shop, Raghav looks around and spots Madhu among a group of call girls. He was quite shocked and he approaches her. Madhulaughs (?) on seeing him and Raghav had a WTH expression. She asks him whether he wanted to share her bed for a night.With a grim expression, he drags her to the car and drives off. Meanwhile, her pimp was sitting in a barber shop with a girl rubbing against him. He gets a call from a minister asking for Madhu and he replies that she will be there at 8 sharp. He leaves the barber shop and finds out that Madhu wasn’t among the other girls. In the car, Madhu cries and explains what happened since the last time they saw each other. She had gotten the divorce but her father had passed away and in order to support her family, she joined a company where the boss sexually assaulted her. Feeling broken, she ended up in this job. At the same time, the pimp was enquiring about where Madhu was.

In a coffee shop, Raghav asks Madhu to marry him. Initially, Madhu refuses by saying that he should marry someone who won’t affect his reputation. Raghav asks what kind of a reputation did he have after being beaten up in a police station for harassing a girl. He says, “Everyone wants a girl like you throughout their life but since the situation wasn’t right for either of us, I wanted to avoid you and that’s why I was so mean to you that day in the coffee shop. I don’t care about what you are. If you marry me, we could have anice future together. So will you?”Madhu, with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face, nods her head. They leave the place and enter the car. He asks, “Shall we start our life right now?” Madhu asks him to take them to a nearby temple. (Montage shows them being romantic)

Meanwhile, the pimp gets a call from the minister who asks “After all the time I’ve backed you up, you can’t even get me the girl I ask for? Is this how you show your loyalty?” On hearing this, he goes blind with rage and goes out on a hunt for them.

After tying the knot, Madhu and Raghav leave the temple.As they walk towards the car, he sees a man with a gun pointing towards them. He covers her but gets shot in his arm and falls down. Then Madhu gets shot in the chest multiple times. A police siren could be heard which scares away the pimp from that area.

A few months later, Ishanth drops Raghav in a park and leaves. Raghav sits on a bench staring at a couple and imagines himself and Madhu in their place.